ACT celebrates biggest ever boost to renewables while Federal Government obsesses over coal

Released 16/02/2017

The ACT will start receiving power from the Hornsdale wind farm today, with the facility set to generate renewable electricity to power more than 57,000 Canberra homes, Minister for Climate Change and Sustainability Shane Rattenbury announced.

“While the Federal Government is misleading the nation and obsessing over coal, here in the ACT we are celebrating the biggest ever boost to our renewable energy supply and showing that renewables are the way of the future,” Minister Rattenbury said.

“The Federal Government’s failure to manage the transition to a clean energy future in any kind of orderly way cannot be allowed to endanger the progress of cities and states like Canberra, which are leading the way in climate change action.

"Today in the ACT Legislative Assembly I will call on all parties to reaffirm their commitment to our climate change mitigation targets, to prioritise investment in renewable energy, and to reject the Federal Government’s deceptive and ideological attacks.”

The Hornsdale wind farm is located around 90 kilometres south-east of Port Augusta in South Australia and was one of three successful projects in the ACT’s 2014 first wind auction.

Securing the Hornsdale wind farm was highly competitive, with the wind farm’s (100MW) second stage successful in the 2015 Wind Auction II, and its third (109MW) stage successful in the 2016 Next Generation Renewables Auction.

“This major wind farm will ultimately provide 1.3 million megawatt-hours of clean renewable energy each year to the ACT, greatly contributing to our nation-leading target of 100% electricity from renewable sources by 2020,” Mr Rattenbury said.

The farm is owned by French renewable energy company Neoen, as well as international infrastructure group John Laing. All stages of Hornsdale will be operated from Neoen’s new Asia Pacific Asset Management headquarters in Civic. All future Neoen projects in Australia will also be operated from Civic, reinforcing Canberra as a renewable energy innovation hub.

“By investing in renewable energy, not only are we doing the right thing for the environment and Australia’s energy future, but we’re being rewarded with economic, business and innovation opportunities.”

The local investment benefits of the Hornsdale Wind Farm Stage 1 include funding the development of CIT’s Renewable Energy Skills Centre for Excellence and supporting research and local business through the ACT’s Renewable Energy Innovation Fund.